Monday, September 17, 2007

Under wraps: Robotics, video vets launch stealth startup

By Efrain Viscarolasaga

Two former executives of iRobot Corp. who were instrumental in its PackBot business have teamed with a former CTO of PictureTel Corp. to launch a company focused on integrating media and robotics for the consumer market.

The new company, North End Technologies LLC, is based in Nashua, N.H., and has landed seed funding from a local venture firm, but the tech veteran founders are still keeping the technology and product details close to their vest.

Thomas Ryden, former director of sales and marketing at Burlington's iRobot, described the developing product only as a "next-generation multimedia technology" familiar to consumers.

"We have some ideas we think are very unique and we want to keep them under wraps until they're ready. (The product) is not a toy, but it's much like the toy market, where they keep things very secretive because it is so competitive," said Ryden.

The backgrounds of the three founders suggest media and video elements, though a strong background in robotics adds some intrigue about what North End has cooking.

Timothy Root is a former CTO at Andover-based videoconferencing pioneer PictureTel. He moved to the same position at PolyCom Inc.'s video division after the California-based videoconferencing giant acquired PictureTel in 2001. Root was responsible for bringing PolyCom's VSX videoconferencing platform to market in 2004 -- and that product remains the primary revenue driver for PolyCom's video offerings.

Root has also served in a CTO role at Woburn's OzVision Global Inc., a maker of networked video systems for the security market.

Ryden and his colleague Grinnell More, on the other hand, deliver a depth of experience in the robotics industry. More was "one of the innovative minds behind iRobot," according to Ryden. More is also the founder of Real World Interface Inc., a maker of mobile robots used in government and lab research. In 1998, Real World merged with IS Robotics Inc., which eventually became iRobot, where More served as a senior vice president until 2005, when he launched another robotics company, called More Industries LLC.

More's work at Real World Interface, iRobot and More Industries focused primarily on robots for military applications. At iRobot, he worked on the company's PackBot, a military robot that has been used for bomb removal and reconnaissance and that continues to be a major revenue driver for iRobot.

More is well known in the local robotics industry, yet colleagues say they're not familiar with the potential new product from North End.

"I know nothing about what Grinnell's up to, but I'm delighted to hear that he's back in business," said Jeanne Dietsch, CEO of MobileRobots Inc. in Amherst, N.H., via e-mail.

More and Ryden met while at iRobot, where Ryden was working as the director of sales and marketing for iRobot, focused on the PackBot line. Prior to iRobot, Ryden directed customer support at Leeman Labs, now part of Teledyne Technologies Inc. in Hudson, N.H.

Still in the development phase, North End is looking for engineering talent. "What we are looking for tells a little about what we are doing," said Ryden.

Three positions are listed on its website: an embedded software engineer, a principal system software engineer and a DSP software engineer. All three include the need for TCP/IP and transport layer Internet protocol experience, indicating a communications element to the product.

The triumvirate came together after More and Root met as neighbors in the North End section of Nashua, also giving origin to the company's name.

The group has received "less than $1 million" in seed funding from Castile Ventures, according to Ryden, and has brought on Castile Ventures adviser Mark Ain as a board member. Ain is best known as the founder of Chelmsford's Kronos Inc., a $500 million management software company taken private in a $1.8 billion buyout.

Nina Saberi, founder of Castile, has also been named to the board.

The product is expected to be ready for demonstration in early 2008, said Ryden. North End also expects to seek more funding and emerge from stealth mode sometime next year. Ryden said North End also plans to employ roughly 100 people in the next year or so.